Walker, Joseph Edison

Joseph Edison Walker (1897-1958): Born in Tillman, Mississippi, Walker was a leading African American physician, businessman and religious leader. He graduated from Alcorn College in 1903 and then attended medical school at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He practiced as a doctor in Mississippi and became president of a bank and an insurance company serving blacks. In 1920 he moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, and was a co-founder of Universal Life Insurance Company, which became one of the largest black-owned insurance companies in the nation under his leadership from 1923 to 1952. He also founded Tri-State Bank with his son and the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis.